https://www.timesunion.com/sports/article/Hard-to-bring-down-UAlbany-lacrosse-s-Tehoka-12938696.php
Hard to bring down UAlbany lacrosse's Tehoka Nanticoke
Freshman attack could have starring role in program's first championship weekend
Updated 6:32 pm, Wednesday, May 23, 2018
UAlbany lacrosse player Tehoka Nanticoke
UAlbany lacrosse player Tehoka Nanticoke
Albany
University at Albany freshman attack Tehoka Nanticoke entered this season as the No. 1 incoming recruit in the country. He has a chance to end it playing on the NCAA Division I men’s lacrosse champion when this Memorial Day weekend is over.
What sounds like a remarkable first season is exactly what Nanticoke’s older brother Chancey Hill told him to expect when they were growing up on the Six Nations reservation.
“My brother’s been ingraining it in my head since I was young that I could do this and now that I’m actually here, it’s an incredible feeling,’’ Nanticoke said.
He is the team co-leader with 81 points for No. 2 seed UAlbany, which enters its first-ever championship weekend at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass. The Great Danes (16-2) take on No. 3 Yale (15-3) in a national semifinal at noon Saturday on ESPN2.
It will be another potential showcase for Nanticoke, who has flummoxed opponents all season with his brute strength and sublime stick skills. He made ESPN’s Top 10 plays at No. 5 with his buzzer-beater in the 15-13 victory over Denver in an NCAA quarterfinal last Saturday.
Nanticoke, listed at 6-foot-1, 235 pounds, took a pass from midfielder Kyle McClancy. He managed to free his stick from Pioneer defenseman Dylan Gaines and fended off longstick midfielder Colin Squires to get off a sidearm shot that just beat the clock as the first half ended. Nanticoke was tripped and hit the turf as he scored.
“It’s lacrosse. It’s going to happen,’’ Nanticoke said. “I just know it takes a lot to bring me down.”
Gaines learned that the hard way more than once. On a play earlier in the second quarter, Nanticoke knocked Gaines back about three yards before unleashing a high scorcher that beat Denver goalie Alex Ready. The goal tied the game at 5 after Denver had taken its only lead.
“It’s just so much fun, and the goal he scored the other day puts so much energy into the team,’’ UAlbany head coach Scott Marr said.
Nanticoke leads the Great Danes with 49 goals and has 32 assists, totals Marr is convinced would be even higher if attack partner Connor Fields (also 81 points) hadn’t missed significant portions of the season with a sprained right knee. Marr thinks they’d both have 100 points. Fields practiced for the second straight day on Wednesday and said it “went well” heading into Foxborough.
“(Nanticoke) has been outstanding,” Marr said. “Eighty-one points as a freshman, some of the goals he’s scored, and just how he’s contributed … He’s really put a lot on his shoulders. But deep down, that’s what he’s all about. He wants that pressure and he wants to be that guy.”
One of his worst games came in a 14-6 loss at Yale on April 22, when Nanticoke shot 0-for-9 with three turnovers.
"It's redemption,'' Nanticoke said of the rematch. "National championship, first time there, so we're all fighting for our lives here and we're learning from our mistakes last game."
Nanticoke said he’s prepared for the pressure of the Final Four this weekend because he has played in championship games in box lacrosse, a summer version of the sport that’s played indoors on a much smaller field.
That’s where Nanticoke also learned to relish contact.
“Yeah, I grew up playing physical and I think that’s what I’m going to continue to do the rest of my career,’’ he said. “There’s a lot more of me on the rez (reservation) playing box lacrosse than there is in college.”
While he looks naturally strong, Nanticoke is quick to point out he’s worked for his body in the weight room in high school and at IMG Academy, the Florida prep school he attended before coming to UAlbany. IMG has sports scientists who tailored lifting programs to lacrosse.
“Just my mentality is big in the weight room, big on the field,’’ he said.
He’s trying to become the latest in a line of Native Americans to win a national title, joining standouts such as Syracuse’s Cody Jamieson and Sid Smith and Denver’s Zach Miller.
“It’s cool having another one from back home being in the championship weekend, but it’s a good feeling,’’ Nanticoke said. “I know our people are proud.”
Former UAlbany star Lyle Thompson, also Native American, has watched and played with Nanticoke. Thompson will be at Foxborough to watch Nanticoke and the Great Danes.
“The thing that makes him most impressive is his confidence as a freshman,’’ Thompson said. “He’s confident in his ability and he doesn’t shy away from it.”
msingelais@timesunion.com ■ 518-454-5509 ■ @MarkSingelais
